Chapter 148

Grace returned to the rental apartment in a state of embarrassment. “It has only been a few days since I left for Thanksgiving and returned but it feels like I’ve experienced a whole lifetime in that period.”

She studied the cramped rental apartment and felt as if there was a chilliness in the air. Grace could not help smiling wryly.

“From now on, I’ll stay here alone once again.

“No one will accompany me and talk to me in the still of the night. Moreover, no one will smile as they call me ‘Sister’!”

She grabbed a set of fresh clothes and washed away her shame before starting to tidy up the house.

“Although Jason was here for only a short time, there are so many traces of him in the house. The cutlery, towel, and toothbrush he was using as well as the clothes and shoes he wore…”

She cleared up everything and placed them all in a cardboard box.

“Why not throw them away?” she asked herself. “Keeping these things will just take up space, but I’d rather keep them. It might sound funny but I actually miss the days I spent with Jay.

“That Jason was clearly an illusion. He was a fake created by Jason, but… my feelings for Jason were real!

“I was so happy on the days I had Jason, as if I was finally not going to be alone anymore.”

Grace finally picked up the half-knitted gloves she had placed by her headboard. “I had wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving to find the time to continue knitting these gloves for him to wear. And yet, now… I will never have the opportunity to finish these gloves.”

She put the gloves as well as the needles and yarn into the cardboard box. She then took some tape to seal the box, placing it in a corner of the house.

“I’ll still be living by myself in the future. Jason is nothing but a man from my dreams,” Grace thought to herself.

At night, she did not turn off the lights and slept with them on. “Back when I left prison and didn’t have Jason, I would keep the lights on when I went to sleep because the darkness reminded me of when I was in jail.

“But then, Jason lived with me. I didn’t know when I started to not need the lights on to fall asleep.

“But now it seems as it this habit has reappeared.”

Grace gave Lina a call to inform her good friend that she had returned to the rental apartment.

“Will you be at the rental apartment tomorrow? I’ll come and find you,” Lina said.

“Yes, I’ll be here,” she replied. “It seems that other than the rental apartment, I have nowhere else I can go.”

Grace was unable to sleep for the entire night. Whenever she shut her eyes, she could only see Jason’s face and the scent of blood was still lingering in her mouth, unwilling to disappear.

She had gargled countless times throughout the night but that bloody stench was still very distinct.

The next day, Lina arrived at the rental apartment and when she noticed Grace’s tired appearance, she hurriedly asked, “I only saw the news this morning. Were you surrounded at the hospital entrance when you tried to leave yesterday? Are you hurt?”

Grace shook her head and replied, “I was only a bit embarrassed, but not hurt.”

Lina was angry and distraught when she saw the self-deprecating expression on her friend’s face. “I’m angry that those people who surrounded and scolded her knew nothing about the incident, and yet they treated an innocent woman like that. I’m distraught that my friend clearly had not been drinking but she was indicted on a charge of driving under the influence.”